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Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Baking bread after a very long time, all of December went for the cakes, oh yes we enjoyed around 10 different cakes for the Bake-a-thon, i even did a strawberry mocha cake last week. Suddenly bread baking took a back seat, though i baked a pizza sometimes last month and tried whole wheat bread, but serious bread baking didn't happen at all.

I have a lot of bookmarks to try, but somehow lack planning. So, this 2018, instead of giving reasons for not baking bread, i want to bake every month with #Breadbakers so atleast we will get to enjoy a new bread every month.

The very first month of 2018 is hosted by Stacy of Food lust people love and she gave us the theme of pretzels. Oh i have tried baking them once, the thin crisp ones and awfully failed, only the last batch out of 4 batches was a success. Rest of it came a bit thick puffy, chubby pretzels! We laughed and ate them all!!

This time i wanted to try those small nibbles, i had a bookmark from KAF website, and tada here it is, pretzel bites, made of whole wheat flour, the only change i did to the recipe, other than halving it.

Ingredients

1& 1/4 Cups whole wheat flour /plain flour

1 & 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup - 3/4th cup of warm Water

1 tbsp olive oil2-3 tbsp of melted butter for brushing the pretzels

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup of water

Method

Take flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Whisk the contents well together. In a microwave safe mug heat water, water should be hot to touch but scalding hot.

Pour 1/2 cup water into the flour mix and mix it with a wooden spoon. When all the flour is wet, knead it with your hands. If you feel the flour is dry, add 2 tbsp of water again and knead. I was able to form a dough after i added 2 tbsp of water.

Add olive oil to this and knead well for another 4-5 minutes. First the dough will be a bit sticky, as you knead it will become super soft. Once done, dab a little oil on top, keep it covered for about 30-40 minutes.

While it is resting, let us prepare the baking soda and water solution. Boil water and add baking soda to it and take it off the stove. Stir until the soda dissolves fully. Let it sit until the dough has rested for atleast 30 minutes.

Remove the dough on to a kneading surface, add a little flour to it. Punch down and divide the dough into 3 or 4 equal parts. I weighed the dough pieces they were approximately 150 grams each.

Roll each dough ball into long ropes measuring 12-15 inches. Divide each rope into 12-15 pieces. Once divided, drop each dough piece into the baking soda solution and let it sit for a minute. I did this 3 batches.

Remove the dough balls using a slotted spoon onto a parchment laid baking tray. Sprinkle sea salt on top if making salty pretzels or Bake them plain if planning to flavor them Later.

Preheat the oven 200c and bake the pretzels for About 18-20 minutes or until done. Remove from the oven,Brush them with butter and enjoy warm.

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.